Finland

How do you choose where to start after you've decided to cook the world? We could have spent weeks figuring out how to commence this thing; we didn't, it was as simple as 'I don't know much about Finland I wonder what they eat there'. I'm grateful for this departure from my usual over analysing self because my default dithering mode could have stopped us from ever getting going.

Finland, a magical place where the sun doesn’t rise in the winter and it won’t go away in the summer. In the winter it is not uncommon for the temperature to drop as low as -22°c, even lower in the North, but the Fins are no wimps, they don’t hide inside when it’s cold. They ski, they hunt and they swim in one of their 188,000 lakes. When they’re done being super heroes they’ll chill, or rather not chill, in a sauna. I’m not romanticising here, there is overwhelming evidence that they all hang out in saunas, there is on average one sauna per household. I am jealous, I want a sauna. Given the climate, bountiful harvests are not gifted to the Fins, they work hard for their grub. Yes they have access to supermarkets with imported food just like the rest of us but they also maximise every opportunity afforded by the land to fill their larders and have methods for preserving pretty much any food stuff handed to them. Food is hearty as anything less would fail to support their active lifestyles.